The town recently launched a new app, Commonwealth Connect, for both Android and iPhone devices, which allows residents to report damaged roadways, burnt out streetlights and downed tree limbs to the Department of Public Services.

The app uses a GPS component to quickly identify the location of the problem, and users can snap a photo of the issue to include with the report. Residents can then track issue through to its resolution, and follow other reported issues of interest to them.

According to Town Administrator Suzanne Kennedy, one of the most useful aspects of the app is that submitted reports are automatically entered as a work order in the system for the Department of Public Services, ensuring issues are attended to as reported.

"We will then commend in order of the reports received in a given day," Kennedy said. "We are utilizing technology to make government more efficient and effective."

The app will be particularly useful to the town following major storms, such as hurricanes that bring down tree limbs and cause other damage that does not pose an imminent danger.

"The app will lessen the burden on our dispatch because they’re inundated during a storm, and when we have severe storms we have to be mindful of where there are downed wires," Kennedy said. "If we can decrease the number of calls to the most important ones, it will be a big help to dispatch."

Commonwealth Connect is based on an app launched in 2009 by Boston’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, and is funded by the Community Innovation Challenge Grant Program.

The app is administered through the city of Boston, which Boston partnered with SeeClickFix, Inc., located in New Haven, Conn., to develop the technology.

To use Commonwealth Connect, residents with smart phones simply download the app, register an email address, and launch it.

Medway, Framingham, Holliston and about 30 other communities were selected to receive the app based on geography and the strength of their grant applications.

The Community Innovation Challenge grant program was launched in fiscal 2012 by the Executive Office for Administration & Finance to help communities invest in technology that could lower costs and improve services and management practices.

Assistant to the Town Administrator Allison Potter learned about the app grant while participating in StatNet, a program for officials to share best practices and advice for performance tracking, and applied on behalf of the town.

Jessica Trufant can be reached at 508-634-7556 or JTrufant@wickedlocal.com.